Examining donor-funded beats

MinnPost has proven a crowdfunding model for subject-matter specific blogs backed by readers and other donors, with supporting quality journalism as a primary driver and the content area as a secondary impetus to give. MinnPost’s CEO notes that these donors become leads for larger gifts over time.

“Finding ways to pay for reporting has been part of the nonprofit news game since the beginning. But MinnPost new approach has the benefit of not just bringing in new dollars for reporting, but also opening up the nonprofit to new groups of funders who may not have considered cutting a check in the name of journalism.